S.F. Supervisor Breed's plan: Put homeless in public housing

Supervisor London Breed, seen here in 2012 at the African American Art & Culture Complex in San Francisco, Calif.

Supervisor London Breed, seen here in 2012 at the African American Art & Culture Complex in San Francisco, Calif.

Photo: Carlos Avila Gonzalez, The Chronicle

Photo: Carlos Avila Gonzalez, The Chronicle

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Supervisor London Breed, seen here in 2012 at the African American Art & Culture Complex in San Francisco, Calif.

Supervisor London Breed, seen here in 2012 at the African American Art & Culture Complex in San Francisco, Calif.

Photo: Carlos Avila Gonzalez, The Chronicle

S.F. Supervisor Breed's plan: Put homeless in public housing

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Supervisor London Breed announced legislation Tuesday that would earmark $2.6 million to rehabilitate 172 public housing units that are too run down for people to live in - housing she wants used for homeless families.

Breed is asking the city to spend the money immediately and outside the normal budget process, possibly to circumvent federal housing law, which requires hopeful public housing residents to be called off a wait list that has been full, and closed, for four years.

Breed, who grew up in public housing in the Western Addition, the neighborhood she represents, said she has waited long enough for improvements and that it's better for the city to put roofs over homeless families' heads in violation of federal law than to leave them on the streets.

"Damn a list. We have to ask for forgiveness instead of permission," she said. "Let the federal government challenge us for being humane citizens. I'm OK with that kind of lawbreaking - to prioritize people who live on the streets. That's a chance the city needs to take."

A spokeswoman for Mayor Ed Lee said he is open to the proposal but "hasn't reviewed it in depth." A spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, which oversees public housing, could not immediately be reached for comment.

Lee spokeswoman Christine Falvey said that if Breed's intent is to get people in empty units faster, "that's something the mayor can support."

Closed since 2010

The waiting list for public housing has been closed since 2010 because the demand dramatically outstrips the supply. Some prospective tenants have been waiting for many years for a unit.

Yet at any given time, a few hundred of the agency's 6,054 units sit vacant because the cash-strapped agency can't quickly rehabilitate them for new tenants. A report last year by Harvey Rose, the Board of Supervisors' budget and legislative analyst, found the agency had missed out on $6.3 million in rent because it allowed units to sit vacant.

Breed on Tuesday afternoon asked the city controller and city attorney to draft a supplemental appropriation, legislation that would be introduced in the coming weeks. She said she didn't want to wait for the 2014-15 budget process to attempt to secure that money, noting that when Lee asked her last year what her three priorities were as a new supervisor, she replied: "Public housing, public housing and public housing."

It's far cheaper, easier and faster to shore up existing units than to build new ones, Breed added.

"When you are dealing with the regular budget process, things get lost, and even when you do (earmark money), you don't have a lot of control over how the money is spent," she said. "My desire is to separate this out, to be clear about its purpose so it doesn't get lost in the shuffle and can be done sooner."

Housing Authority issues

Lee last year made a commitment to help rehabilitate the San Francisco Housing Authority after The Chronicle unearthed myriad issues facing the agency, including employee lawsuits filed against now-fired director Henry Alvarez, allegations he steered contracts to friends and political allies, and a score from federal inspectors rating it as one of the two worst public housing agencies in California.

With the help of the Mayor's Office of Housing, the Housing Authority has qualified for a new federal program that will allow private and nonprofit affordable housing developers to take over some properties as long as they pay to upgrade them.

But that rehabilitation work isn't projected to start until next year, and city officials have said some improvements need to be made immediately so more people can be moved off the waiting list.

It's not clear how many homeless families would have to be added to that list, which is constantly reordered according to how many points each person on it has. Extra points, for example, are given to veterans, homeless families, homeless seniors, homeless people with disabilities, people who were evicted from apartments in San Francisco, and people who pay more than 70 percent of household income in rent.

A homeless family including a veteran would be among the top candidates on the waiting list, while a homeless family without a veteran would also rate fairly high.

Jeff Kositsky is the executive director of the Hamilton Family Center, which runs the biggest shelter for families in the city and other programs to help house homeless families.

'Our primary tool'

He said the Housing Authority's units should be one of the first tools for agencies seeking housing for homeless families - and he's glad the authority may finally meet that need. As of Tuesday, 205 homeless families were on a waiting list seeking shelter in San Francisco.

"It's a shame that things really melted down entirely," he said, "but I'm really excited about the fact the city has really renewed efforts around fixing the Housing Authority and has taken control of really what should be our primary tool that we have to deal with homelessness and a lack of affordability."